24 December 1968-Apollo VIII saves 1968

1. 1968. What a tumultuous, calamitous, violent year, both in the United States and around the world. A short summation of some of the major events in the year some historians have dubbed “The Year that Everything Went Wrong”:

21 January-North Vietnam launches a major offensive against the Marine base at Khe Sanh

23 January-USS Pueblo and its crew are captured by North Korea; crew is held and tortured for nearly a year before they are released.

30 January-Tet offensive erupts as the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong attack nearly every provincial capital in South Vietnam.

12 March-Senator Eugene McCarthy decapitates President Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, mobilizing thousands of students who “get clean for Gene”

16 March-Senator Robert Kennedy announces that he will also seek the Democratic presidential nomination

31 March-President Johnson addresses the nation on the Vietnam War, announces a bombing halt and that negotiations will soon begin in Paris; he then stuns the nation and the world by stating that “I will not seek, and I will not accept the nomination of my party for another term as your President.” Vice President Hubert Humphrey enters the race.

4 April-Dr. Martin Luther King is assassinated in Memphis. Riots erupt across the nation the next day, which is Good Friday.

21 May-USS Scorpion (SSN-589) disappears while on patrol in the Med; all 99 sailors are lost at sea.

5 June-Senator Robert Kennedy is assassinated in Los Angeles after winning the California Democratic primary

21 August-Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact armed forces invade Czechoslovakia to crush the emerging democratic movement

28 August-As VP Humphrey is declared the presidential nominee of the Democratic Party at its convention in Chicago, a great riot erupts in the city, with television images of Chicago policemen using excessive force to quell student protestors who chant “the whole world is watching”. Earlier in the evening as Senator Abraham Ribicoff of Connecticut had decried Chicago Mayor Richard Daly’s “Gestapo tactics” from the convention podium, news cameras panned to Mayor Daly, who could be seen clearly shouting “fuck you, you kike son of a bitch.”

17 October-African-American sprinters John Carlos and Tommy Smith raise their black-gloved fists in the Black Power salute as the U.S. national anthem is played for their gold and silver medal awards. Not even the Olympics were free of controversy that year.

As the year came to a close, one shining moment reminded all of us here on Earth that we are all part of one human race, inhabiting the only planet known to be able to sustain our species. The Apollo VIII mission was launched on 21 December, with the never-before tried goal of entering lunar orbit and returning safely to Earth. The mission was commanded by Frank Borman, with Jim Lovell as Command Module pilot and William Anders as Lunar module pilot. The mission launched flawlessly, achieved lunar insertion trajectory perfectly, and executed a flawless burn that inserted them into lunar orbit on 24 December, Christmas Eve. On the fourth orbit of the moon, Frank Borman noticed something that no human had ever seen before: an Earthrise. He snapped a black and white photo. Minutes later William Anders got the color camera and snapped the photo that helped to inspire the first Earth Day in 1970. As the astronauts watched something that only they could see, Borman, his voice choking with emotion, said to Mission Control: “Fellas, we’ve just seen an Earthrise and it is truly wonderful!”

Later on the same orbit, the crew made a radio broadcast to Earth, which was listened to by almost a billion people worldwide. The men took turns reading from the first chapter of Genesis, verses 1-10, which are:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.


Borman concluded the broadcast with"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth".

I was 8 years old in 1968, soon to be 9 as the year came to a close. I didn’t understand everything that had happened that year, but I knew it had been a terrible time across the board. The men of Apollo VIII reminded us that we all share this fragile world, and it’s all we have. I was also a firm believer in the Christian faith when I was 8, so the words from Genesis, broadcast from 200,000 miles away, were truly moving for me and for billions of others as well. Time magazine named Borman, Lovell and Anders as its Men of the Year for 1968, and the Earthrise photo taken by Anders was deemed by Life magazine to be one of the 100 most iconic photos of all time. When Apollo VIII returned safely to Earth, Borman received a telegram from an unknown sender who summed up what everyone on Earth felt. The telegram read:

“Thank you Apollo VIII. You saved 1968.”





Earthrise, as seen by the crew of Apollo VIII on 24 December, 1968

2 Dec 1941-"Climb Mt. Niitaka" is transmitted from Tokyo to the Imperial Japanese Fleet

On 2 December, 1941, a powerful force of Japanese aircraft carriers, cruisers and destroyers were en route to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. A smaller force was also en route to Singapore, home of the Royal Navy fleet guarding the British Empire in Asia. Both forces got underway on 26 November, awaiting the attack order/no attack order from Imperial Japanese Navy headquarters. The order to attack was dependent on the satisfactory conclusion of negotiations between the Japanese diplomats in Washington, who were holding regular meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Cordell Hull. If the negotiations were successful, the fleet would turn back. If not, the diplomats were to present the U.S. with a declaration of war, and the attack would commence.

The Japanese had been studying how to attack Pearl Harbor for years. They had modified their aerial torpedoes so that they could operate in the shallow waters of the Pearl Harbor anchorage, and the commander of the Japanese Navy, Admiral Yamamoto, had studied at the U.S. Naval War College. He knew his American counterparts very well, particularly their schedules. Saturday night was normally set aside for entertainment and poker playing (Yamamoto was an excellent card player), and Sunday was a day of rest, with liberty and church services for all hands. Sunday morning would be the best time to attack the fleet at Pearl Harbor, as operational readiness would be at the lowest point.

All the fleet needed to hear for the attack was a simple code phrase, which was “Climb Mt. Niitaka”. Niitaka is the highest mountain on Taiwan, which in 1941was a Japanese possession. The mountain had been climbed successfully in 1900 by a team of Japanese climbers, who named the mountain Niitaka, which means “new high mountain”. This name was given because Niitaka is even higher than sacred Mount Fuji on the island of Honshu. Niitaka is also a very difficult ascent, extremely challenging with a high chance of failure.

When the code phrase was transmitted, U.S. Navy cryptologists intercepted and translated it, but the phrase had no meaning. For the fleet commanders the meaning was perfectly clear. It meant that negotiations in Washington were not proceeding to Japan’s advantage, the the U.S. had no intention of lifting the oil and scrap metal embargo until Japan disengaged from its war in China and pulled its troops out of French Indochina (which after World War II would become the nations of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, but that’s another story), so the only alternative was war. The code phrase meant that all aircraft carriers and supporting ships were to be in place to attack Pearl Harbor and Singapore by 7/8 December. 7 December for Pearl Harbor, as it lay on the opposite side of the International Date line, and 8 December for Singapore.

1 Dec 1824-Deadlock in the Electoral College

The presidential election of 1824 was a mess from the start. There were four candidates vying for the White House that year and they were all from the same party, the Democratic-Republican party. The Federalist Party of George Washington and John Adams fell apart after Jefferson won the presidency in the election of 1800, leaving the country with one-party rule under the presidencies of Madison and Monroe. The candidates for 1824 were:

Andrew Jackson-Former Congressman, sitting Senator, hero of the Battle of New Orleans, and spokesman for the “common man”. Jackson, if elected, would be the first President not to attend college, the first President self-taught, and the first President from a state that was not part of the original 13 colonies: Tennessee.

John Quincy Adams-Secretary of State under President James Monroe, former ambassador to Russia, drafter of the Treaty of Ghent, which ended the War of 1812, former US Senator from Massachusetts, son of President John Adams.

Henry Clay-Sitting Speaker of the House of Representatives and Congressman from Kentucky. Like Jackson, if elected, he would be the first President from a state not part of the original colonies.

William H. Crawford-Secretary of the Treasury, former Secretary of War, former US Senator from Georgia, former US ambassador to France.

Each candidate ran strongly in the region where they were from, and when the dust settled the electoral college vote was:

Jackson-99
Adams-84
Crawford-41
Clay-37

Total Electoral Votes=261

Votes needed to win the White House-131

The 12th Amendment to the Constitution mandates that the President must win a majority of the electoral college votes to secure the White House, and if no candidate wins a majority, the election is thrown into the House of Representatives, with the top 3 electoral vote recipients vying for the prize. On 1 December 1824 the electoral votes were certified and the presidential election was placed in the hands of the House. Clay would have been eliminated under the provisions of the 12th Amendment, but Crawford, who had suffered a stroke earlier in the year, withdrew his name from the contest, leaving the election to Jackson, Adams and Clay. Clay despised Jackson, viewing him as uncouth and a butcher, as Jackson’s victory over the British at New Orleans came after the Treaty of Ghent was signed, thus ending hostilities. As they say in combat, “there’s always some son of a bitch who doesn’t get the word”. Clay realized that as the man with fewest electoral votes, and coming from the small state of Kentucky (taking notes, Senators McConnell and Paul?) there was little chance of him entering the White House; however, he was in an excellent position to act as kingmaker for the eventual winner. His position on tariffs and national funding of roads and other infrastructure projects was closer to that of John Quincy Adams, so he threw his support behind Adams. When the House voted on 9 February 1825, the support of Clay put Adams over the top. Under the 12th Amendment, each state delegation votes together, and Clay’s position as Speaker also helped Adams.

Jackson was outraged, as he had entered the contest with a plurality of electoral votes and strong popular vote support as well. His rage exploded when Adams offered the position of Secretary of State to Clay. Prior to the House vote an article had appeared in a Philadelphia newspaper stating that as a price for Clay’s support, Adams would name him Secretary of State. This was never investigated before the House voted, but once the vote was certified and Clay accepted the offer, Jackson screamed that a “corrupt bargain” had been reached, and he swore revenge come the 1828 election. The position of Secretary of State carried extra potency in the early 1800s, as Jefferson, Madison and Monroe had all served in the office and gone from there to the White House. To the casual observer it appeared that Adams was offering Clay a stepping stone to the White House via the top office in the cabinet.